Why you should demo at Product Hunt Boston

And what you should do to prepare!

Pull yourself away from the spreadsheets. Commit that code. Convert that slide deck to PDF and GET 👏 OUT 👏 FROM 👏 BEHIND 👏 YOUR 👏 DESK 👏.

Your new product is a story and it needs to be told. It needs to be told over and over and over and over again…start now. Don’t just pitch and demo the product to your co-workers, family, or friends–they like you too much to give honest feedback. Don’t let an investor pitch be the first time your demo your real product. First impressions matters too much there to risk that. Practice on Product Hunt Boston’s unique audience of fellow makers. Tell us what you’d like to demo.

Judges, including David Binder, Carolina Samsing, and Jacqui Miller, helped give feedback to demoers.

Product Hunt Boston is a place for founders and startup employees to practice demoing their product. Not in front of a mirror, but in front of other founders and product enthusiasts who can give you honest feedback on your demo. This is a place to tell your product story to an audience of other makers in the Boston area. Why did you start this company? Who does your product really help?

Product Hunt Boston audiences question things that typical customers won’t tell you. You’ll hear feedback that investors won’t say, and things your co-workers missed because they are too close to the product development.

Two parts to every meetup–stations and demos

The meetup is broken up into two parts. As attendees arrive, demoers are set up around the room with stations to engage 1-on-1. Teams come up with creative ways to interact with the audience.

Daniel Wiese had attendees try on the Humon Hex on their calf muscle while doing calf raises. This simulated what athletes do while training to measure oxygen saturation, a key indicator for how hard athletes should push themselves.

Jenny Miller and the Quilt team, who launched their Renters Insurance product, wanted to find out what people thought renters insurance actually covered.

Once everyone has settled in, we get right to the demos. Each demoer gets 5 minutes to present with time for Q&A. Oh, and did we mention the demos are live streamed to the Product Hunt community?!

In addition to the live audience, Product Hunt Boston is streamed live to the global Product Hunt community. While Nikita Virani was getting set up to demo Wizdy Diner, the community started tuning in.

After all the demos, we ask the audience–”if you were to invest in the companies who demoed, how would you invest $100?”. At our September 2017 meetup, we had a panel of judges weigh in too. They got $1,000 (of fake money 😉) to help decide the winner.

How to prepare for the meetup

The Product Hunt Boston team is here to help you prepare for your demo. Here are some things you can do to get on your A-game:

1. Figure out what you want to get out of the event. Hiring new employees, practice a pitch for investors, launch a new product of feature, or just get feedback on how to grow your customer-base.
2. Write your story. You probably have already started doing this or your wouldn’t have gotten this far. Well, put it into a deck. Start with an outline. Make it short. Make it clear.
3. Figure out where and when your demo fits into the story. You need to demo at the… demo event. But you knew that, right?
4. Practice. Practice your pitch to the mirror, your co-workers, friends, family, your cat 😸, or the guy at the coffee shop that stares are you🤨 (because of your laptop stickers?👩‍💻)… okay, skip that guy. But you get the idea. Practice!
5. Be yourself. Authenticity is super important when telling your story. Make it natural and be real. 😎👍

A great demo tells a story that…

• convinces the audience about why you are so passionate about solving a problem

Ben Rubin of 10% Happier explained how he turned to meditation after burning out trying to build his first company.

• explains who your target customers are and why they need your solution over others
• shows a real demos of your product in the context of this story

Andres Calvo and Jody Fu explain what’s happening as W8X dynamically changes resistance with their electric weight training system.

• asks the audience how they can help (hiring, customer introduction, beta users, etc)

So why demo?

Andy Cook, Co-founder at Tettra, who demoed at Product Hunt Boston in June 2017, said:

“We love connecting with other tech-focused Bostonians, so the event was a great fit.”

Demo your product at Product Hunt Boston and get:

• Honest feedback on your idea 🤓
• Questions from an inquisitive audience that will help you figure out what’s missing from your story
• A chance to find other people locally who are interested in helping you build

👉 Tell us what you’d like to demo at the next meetup.